This invention relates generally to optical fibers and in particular, to devices for splicing ends of a pair of optical fibers together.
Optical fibers have been widely employed for transmission of data in various systems. These systems require the use and mating of optical fibers extending from various data sources. An optical fiber acting as a glass-like conducting guide of a given length and of extremely small diameter frequently must be connected or spliced to the end of a similar fiber to enable it to serve as a system component. Because of the extremely small dimensions and cross-sectional areas of an optical fiber, the splicing of such fibers one to another so that the fibers are precisely aligned axially to minimize losses is of considerable importance and great difficulty. Several prior art devices are known in the art to achieve such splices. However, these prior art splices are difficult to use, have a complex construction, are overly large, overly expensive or ineffective.
One prior art device known from U.S. Pat. No. 5,042,902 issued to Huebscher et al. was an attempt to overcome the shortcomings of the prior art. The Huebscher et al. device includes a two section housing and a capillary tube. One section of the housing includes a pair of groove supports and a recess for receipt of capillary tube. The other section of the housing includes a pair of cantilever arms. Each support groove is disposed adjacent a respective end of the capillary tube and aligned with a longitudinally extending portion of the passageway extending through the capillary tube. The cantilever arms are disposed over the respective grooves to form respective spaces through which the free ends of the optical fibers are passed to guide the fibers into the capillary tube passageway where they abut each other. An ultraviolet ray activated, index matched, adhesive is provided. The adhesive is activated causing it to set to encapsulate and lock the various components of the splice in place against disconnection.
The Huebscher et al. prior art optical fiber splice has been satisfactory. However, it suffers from the disadvantage that although the cantilever arms do prevent against accidental slippage of the fibers from the housing, they do not provide sufficient force to maintain the optical fibers in proper alignment or within the housing when forces are applied to the fibers and/or the housing. Accordingly, an ultraviolet adhesive is utilized. However, the use of the ultraviolet adhesive because of its hardened encapsulated state prevents reuse of the optical fiber splice once the adhesive has been set. Accordingly, a simple optical fiber splice construction which provides sufficient force to maintain ends of optical fibers in proper alignment while allowing reuse is provided by the invention to overcome the short comings of the prior art.